The Postcolonial Turn in Italian Studies: European Perspectives

Abstract

To date, Italy’s imperial enterprises have received little attention in comparative colonial studies. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller write, it was not until recently that Italian colonialism was accounted for in Italian national history. This positions historical studies on Italian colonialism in a double marginalization, with respect to its role in modern Europe, and with respect to its construction of the Italian national consciousness. However, though more limited in time and geographically restricted than that of the French and British empires, Italian colonialism had a significant impact on the development of metropolitan conceptions of race, national identity, and imagination (Ben-Ghiat and Fuller).